Art Bids and Bites

The gallery space was busy this afternoon with the opening reception for our new Art Bids and Bites event.  Everyone was bidding on their favorite silent auction artwork items in the Acorn Gallery while they enjoyed the wonderful array of food to eat!
 
 The artwork for live auction event at the January 30th dinner was also studied and enjoyed.  Such selections!

 
The Art Bids and Bites is a new fundraiser for the LAC, which will culminate in a January 30th dinner at the gallery.  The event will include the sale of the silent auction items to the highest bidder, as well as an opportunity to bid on the live auction items donated by area artists.

Visit the gallery today and choose your favorites!  January 30th dinner event tickets are available for $25. Seating is limited, so get yours today!
Photos and story by Ann Quinn

Color

As a watercolorist and painting instructor, I am always interested in learning about the properties of different pigments and eager to share that information with my students. As I gain experience using different colors made by different manufacturers, I find that I choose hues not just for the color they impart, but also for other aspects, such as their granulating properties, or their ability to be lifted out.

As an extension of learning about how different paints react with water on paper, I also find myself looking at the chemical makeup of the pigments.  For instance, I noticed that Cheap Joe’s Alizarin Crimson, Graham’s Quin Rose and Winsor Newton’s Permanent Rose all specify their pigment as PV19.  Yet Winsor Newton’s Alizarin Crimson differs from Cheap Joe’s with its pigment being PR83.  In dabbing a sample swatch, I found the hues to be quite similar, yet somewhat different in temperature and in saturation.  Curious, I called Cheap Joe’s — they’ve always been helpful with past questions.  The pigment PV19 is heated to different degrees in order to achieve the various colors, the customer service rep explained.  That makes sense — it’s the same pigment, just processed differently.

I’ve also been reading “Color, a natural history of the palette” by Victoria Finlay.  Interesting but a bit lengthy at times, it takes the reader on a journey seeking the origin of many pigments, such as Mummy Brown, which was actually derived from ground-up mummies — obviously no longer a politically correct thing to do, or the story of Indian Yellow, which purportedly came from one specific area in India where cows’ urine was collected after they were force-fed mango leaves.  In traveling to the city in question, the author found no one knew of her claims regarding Indian Yellow, but stepping into some squishy cow dung and looking down at her shoe, she discovered its actual source.  No wonder Winsor Newton complained of this pigment’s foul odor!  The history of cochineal was another interesting chapter in this book.  Tiny insects found on cacti in South America are collected, dried and ground to make the pigment for carmine.  This additive was even approved as a food-safe dye.

Articles in the magazine International Artist, written by color expert Michael Wilcox have also been very illuminating.  He details origins, history of use and specific properties of paints, such as lightfastness and usage.

There is so much to learn about color and paints, not only different paints’ sources, history and physical properties, but also other manifestations associated with different colors — such as my previous blog entry about Haint Blue being used to repel spirits, colors being employed to aid appetite, calm nerves or other physiological effects. Color plays its part in synesthesia, where one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another.  There is no end to the things one can learn about color, and produce a pretty painting while doing so!

Book Review: The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

In this work of historical fiction, Alice Hoffman elaborates upon the life history of artist Camille Pissarro, growing up in an outcast Jewish family on the island of St. Thomas.  Instead of helping with the family business, he finds himself drawn to art.  Hoffman describes his vision as such: “ I had always looked at the world as if it were a puzzle — whether it was a scene, a landscape, or a person — the pieces dissolved inside my mind so that I could then put them back together to form a whole.”  He draws and paints the vivid color-filled island scenes, then eventually travels to Paris to paint the city scenes there.


The Marriage of Opposites is a story about loves lost and found, families’ long held secrets, island life and the myths that perpetuate through generations.  Ghost stories, spirits and werewolves spook characters’ imaginations.  Magical realism is sprinkled throughout. The color Haint Blue plays an important role — “blue kept unwanted spirits away; ghosts and demons could not cross over water, nor could they enter a room that was the color of the sea.” Now I know why so many porch ceilings are painted this light blue-green color.  Haint blue, I’ll have to add it to my palette and will be reminded of Camille Pissarro and this haunting book whenever I use it.  Enjoy Alice Hoffman’s lush prose, engaging story and learn a little about one of the art world’s most famous painters.

Peebles Art & Wine Event

  
The totally organized brainchild of LAC member Kathy Ross, the ‘Art on Loan’ event was a first for LAC.

Joining forces with Rick Peebles, owner of Peebles Prosthetics, a dental prosthetics lab, the LAC solved the problem of his building’s bare walls by displaying a variety of member artwork!  As a result, Rick got a more attractive facility for employees and clients, and the LAC got wonderful exposure of our abilities and offerings as a non-profit organization.

     While beginning with the idea of furthering exposure of the many talented LAC artists, the show wrapped up with a tremendous reception on December 10th.
 

Rick’s employees, led by Cindy Kelly, Sales and Marketing Director, were also on hand to organize and serve.
 
 
Attended by many artists and Peebles’ clients and friends, Kathy organized a fun evening, including a scavenger hunt, raffle drawings, silent auction, musical entertainment,and the opportunity to get a jump on holiday shopping by buying from the artists’ sales tables.
 
Throughout the evening, the reception crowd flowed around the entire second floor of the building, weaving down the hallways where the art on loan was hung several months ago and into the large training room for announcements of prizes.  The corner break room held a large selection of wonderful food!
 

And the decision was made among everyone involved that such success deserves a repeat!  Look for another opportunity for this event later in 2016!
by Ann Quinn

Denver Arts Week First Friday at LAC

 What a great turnout at the LAC Gallery for the Denver Arts Week First Friday Artwalk!  Coop members Lynnette Kupferer, Gail Firmin and Leslie Bitgood demonstrated their art -- mosaics, watercolor and glass lampwork, visitors enjoyed the music of Brian Sapp and guest, delicious appetizers and wine were plentiful, and sales of homemade Holiday gifts were numerous.  A great time was had by all!

Literary Outreach: Book Reviews

The Lakewood Arts Council has always included not only an emphasis on visual arts, but also emphasized the importance of literary, musical and performance art as well.  Previously in the quarterly FOCUS magazine, book reviews fulfilled that literary category.  With the transition to electronic delivery, changes have taken place, and for those of you interested in reading my opinion of recent readings, you may find them here on the blog.  And as always, I encourage any readers to submit a book review of your own for publication,  and would welcome any creative writing to be posted on this blog! Just contact me at gbfirmin@comcast.net

Here's a review of a couple of books I read back in 2014:

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber
I requested “The 13 Clocks” from the library because I read that Neil Gaiman, author of “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”, whose books I’ve enjoyed, considers it one of his favorite books and “required reading”.  It took a long time on hold at the library to finally get to me.
A short story, one may call it a fairy tale, or a tale of horror, or a comedy, or the hero’s quest.  It is all these things.  But mostly, according to Neil Gaiman, it is a story that the author, James Thurber, thoroughly enjoyed writing. This is evident by the amount of wordplay contained in the story: the words fall in and out of poetic rhyme, humorous passages also contain an element of horror and made-up words that are fun to pronounce.
“The 13 Clocks” is about an evil Duke living in a castle with a captive princess.  Only a suitor who can restart the stopped clocks can win the hand of the princess, or be fed to the geese.  If you enjoy a funny fairy tale, and delight in the craft of the written word, take time to read “The 13 Clocks”.

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
Eight short stories make up this collection by Karen Russell, not all about Vampires, but all seem to incorporate a theme of metamorphosis.  In the title story, humans morph into bats and satisfy their abnormal cravings by sucking on lemons in the lemon grove. Young Japanese girls work in the silk factories by actually transforming into silkworms in “Reeling for the Empire” and in “The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis”, the discovery of a scarecrow by Eric’s tormentors scares more than just crows.  Is the scarecrow really Eric or just a cruel joke? It works its magic in effecting a change of heart in a teenage boy. 
Descriptively written, fantastical and thought-provoking, these stories make one wonder about their own transformations. In “The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach, 1979”, Nal considers fate: “If fate was just a tapestry with a shifting design –some fraying skein that the gulls were tearing right this second – then Nal didn’t see why he couldn’t also find a loose thread, and pull."

A Feast for the Senses

You can feel it — that cool crisp edge to the breeze, slicing into summer’s heat, opening the rift to usher in fall.  My favorite time of year, when the senses are titillated by sights, sounds and smells.  A trip to the farmer’s market is a delight, an inspiration in color and activity, a painting waiting to happen.

Bright white tents mimic the clouds in the endlessly blue sky, shading shoppers dressed in colorful clothes handling a varied assortment of vegetables, the harvest after a long growing season, ready to pop in a pan and savor the smells of simmering sauces, soups and stews.

Strolling the stalls, I can’t help but be enthralled with the mix of textures and tones, colors and composition begging to be put on paper with pencil and paint. I photograph woven baskets from Africa, stacked one upon the other, handles mimicking twining vines.  Good gourd! Look at those bumpy pumpkins, pimples and puckers creating a mottled surface sure to challenge an artist intent on accurate rendering.  But the colors!  Oranges, reds and yellows, greenish-blue, cream and pink!  When did pumpkins become drenched in such a palette?  Crookneck squash, pattypan, chayote, shiny aubergine, baskets of scarlet tomatoes — I’m choosing paint tubes in my head already.

Moving on, drawn to the crackling hiss of hatch chilis, roasting in a rotating cage, radiating aromas that scent the scene.  Autumn is imminent when blistering poblanos tantalize the taste buds with the promise of a pot of hearty green chili.

Stall tenders probably wonder why I’m photographing their produce — aren’t artists always anxious to capture their impressions to save for a future masterpiece?  With the images in my camera, bounty in my market bag, inspiration in my mind, I head home ready to create —good food, captivating paintings and a home that, like the farmer’s market, offers a delight to the senses.